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West Ham United in pursuit of Lewis O'Brien with £12m release clause in Huddersfield contract
West Ham are among the clubs in the hunt to sign Huddersfield Town midfielder Lewis O’Brien this summer, according to the Huddersfield Examiner.
The newspaper reported via their print edition on 9 June (back page) that Leeds have backed out of the race for the 23-year-old central midfielder and are pursuing other targets.
However, it is understood that West Ham, Southampton and Crystal Palace retain an interest in O’Brien, who has a £12million release clause in his contract at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Clever signing
David Moyes needs to add to his central midfield options this summer.
Mark Noble has hung up his boots and it doesn’t look as though Alex Kral’s loan stay at the London Stadium will be turned into a permanent deal.
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That means that West Ham have just Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek as natural central midfielders in their squad and one is being strongly linked with a move away while the other has seen his form drop in recent months.
O’Brien is a young English midfielder who’s been on the up at Huddersfield.
He was very unlucky to not be promoted with Huddersfield in the 2021/22 season as they finished third in the Championship and were done over by dodgy refereeing decisions in the play-off final defeat to Nottingham Forest.
The Essex-born ace, who’s spent his entire career with Huddersfield, played 50 times for the Terriers this season.
As quoted by YorkshireLive on 18 March, Huddersfield manager Carlos Corberan dubbed O’Brien as an “exceptional player” who is “is never going to stop growing”.
West Ham could do with a young English player like O’Brien and that £12million release clause suggests that a deal is doable for Moyes.
Let’s keep an eye on this one.
In other West Ham news, a deal is on the cards to sign a forward who Moyes once compared to Wayne Rooney.
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